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LAW4704: Taxation Law
Workload: 144 hours per semester. The content is moderate. Prescribed Prerequisites/Recommended Prerequisites: Prescribed Pre-Requisites For students who commenced their LLB (Hons) course in 2015 or later: LAW1111; LAW1114; LAW1112; LAW1113; LAW2101; LAW2102; LAW2112; LAW2111; LAW3112 For students who commenced their LLB course prior to 2015: LAW1100 OR LAW1101 and LAW1102 or LAW1104 Assessments: Collaborative group research paper focusing on a current taxation law issue related to a topic or topics covered in the unit (25%) AND final examination 2.5 hours plus 30mins reading and noting time (tests key legal principles and their application to practical taxation problems and that tests how students calculate taxpayer tax liabilities) (75%). Recorded Lectures: No. Past exams available: Yes. There is one practice exam-style problem in the unit guide and numerous smaller practice questions are provided in the textbook. Textbook recommended? Yes. The textbooks are clear and concise. They are a necessity. Comments: Semester 2, 2015 Have you ever wondered whether you can claim a tax deduction for your Tinder dates? Do you lie awake at night hypothesising as to what s 9-10 of the GST regime means when it says that a supply does not include a supply of money unless the money is provided as consideration for a supply that is a supply of money? If you answered yes, you should do Taxation Law. If you answered no, you should do Taxation Law. The unit is inherently practical. You won’t have to memorise the historical development of miscellaneous precedent X or comprehend the perils of value judgments here. The course will equip you with a very particular set of skills that will let you analyse the tax consequences of a large series of business and personal transactions. Moreover, Tax will help you understand more about the tax system and how it affects you in your day-to-day life. I loved the practicality, and went on to study Advanced Taxation Law in 2016 which I also recommend. The textbooks are fantastic and your primary learning material. Stephen will guide you through the relevant sections in class, explaining everything thoroughly. The readings for this unit are fairly modest and achievable compared to other units. If you absolutely can’t get all three books, the casebook is the least useful, but I relied on it significantly for the assignment. The group assignment was intriguing and very practical, giving you an interesting and real-world facts scenario which you must analyse in order to advise a client of the tax implications of a spree of personal and business transactions. One piece of advice I would give is to get one person to write it up and do less research, rather than just stitch together 3-4 separate sections. The examination is a tricky beast. It is one large set of facts for the entire exam and difficult to time manage as you never really know how far through you are in terms of marks (I finished one quarter of my paper in half the time and still, thankfully, finished). Top tip: practice writing concisely and never write any more than necessary for each answer. Don’t let the exam put you off, though. The bell-curve ensures the difficulty of the exam doesn’t matter. I cannot recommend Taxation Law enough. It is the most popular elective at Monash for a reason.